FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[plaques]

Shoot ... shute I thought there was something rong. At that low level it cud be a nite comode colecter.

[Stanley]

Not for coal, that was an opening on the wall at shoulder height, there had to be a drop inside for the coal. That lid is at ground level and is either for emptying the ash pits by raking them out or to get access to the night soil bucket. From the size of it I'd say it was the midden, the ash pit where all the household rubbish was thrown. See various entries in the LTP on middens and ash pits.

[plaques]

I think you are right. The cover is placed at the right Hand corner of the Brook St car park. backing up to the old Town Hall. We all know how much Bull ???? was produced there so it demanded a very high class cover.

[Stanley]

The disposal method for night soil used to be spreading on the land and two Bracewell Brothers who farmed up on the side of Whitemoor had the contract. I have a record of them getting into trouble for spreading too much on their land and causing a nuisance.

[Stanley]

Once of a day, this was a regular sight. You can't see the colour but it was a red Post Office bike and the lad is delivering a telegram which was the standard method of getting a quick message to someone.
Many people hated telegrams because of their use in WW1 to notify people that there loved ones had been lost in action. Even for my generation telegrams were associated with bad news.

[Stanley]

'Stop me and buy one' used to be synonymous with Wall's ice cream and eventually came to apply to all ice cream.
They had a large factory at Godley near Hyde where they made sausage, pies and bacon.

[Stanley]

I've just noticed, those tyres on that tricycle are solid and not pneumatic.
The early wagons that came on the road after WW1 all had solid tyres as pneumatic tyres were in their infancy and restricted to cycles. Jack Platt drove wagons with solid tyres and if you have a look at his evidence in the LTP he talks about them but more important, describes going to Oswald Tillotson's at the Summit in Burnley for new solid tyres when the old ones were worn out. That's the only description of the process I have ever come across.

[Tripps]

I suppose this qualifies -

How Green Was My Valley Fascinating stuff.

[Stanley]

Definitely David! Wonderful stuff.

[Tizer]

I happened on this web page recently about coal gas production... LINK

[Stanley]

Towns gas and the by products were part of our lives for over 150 years. Queuing at the gas works with a home-made cart for a bag of coke.



The tar boiler was a common sight on the road, tar was essential for maintenance.



The distillates from the process were valuable feedstock for industry, everything from the lightest fractions through m mordants for dying to gas tar. The stain above can still be seen on the wall in the old railway sidings, now the Pioneer Car Park. The liquor was pumped from the gas works to the railway yard and this was a result of spills.
A valuable industry but all gone now...

[Stanley]

Thinking about gas got me on to this, an old beef of mine but still valid I think. It concerns one use of gas that should, by rights, be a forgotten corner but isn't....

"I don’t know what the regulations are in the rest of the world but in the UK it is illegal to operate a domestic water heater or fire fuelled by gas unless it is vented to the outside and regularly checked for safety. Here’s my problem; why is it that given the strict rules for these appliances it is perfectly legal to have a gas cooker discharging the products of combustion into the kitchen. The noxious gases are exactly the same, in fact are probably worse because the burners are almost always badly adjusted. That’s it, as simple as that and I have never managed to get a satisfactory answer.
I suspect that the core of the matter is that there is no way that cooker top gas burners can be made safe without the extra expense of an efficient hood and a large extractor fan. In practice the cooker would also have to be on an outside wall.
Carrying this line of thought a bit further, I can’t think of any other domestic appliance that has survived using the original technology for so long. There is no fundamental difference between the latest 21st century cooker and the first one ever invented. Apart from the emissions, could there be a more wasteful heating technology than a gas burner under a pan? My new wonder gas boiler runs at approximately 92% efficiency. A good standard. I wonder whether a gas cooker could get 40%. I doubt it. So the ‘obvious’ answer is to ban all gas cookers and make everyone use electricity for cooking. Here we hit another problem because by the time the electricity reaches your meter it has lost 70% of the original thermal content of the base fuel used to generate it. You then reduce this even more by using it wastefully. So, it’s quite possible that in terms of thermal efficiency [and this is the key to the whole fuel problem] a gas cooker is better for the world in terms of efficiency despite it being 19th century technology.
If you want an argument in favour of nuclear generation of electricity this could be it. The cost of the fuel is such a small proportion of the price of generating the power that the thermal efficiency doesn’t matter so much. "

[Stanley]

It's unthinkable in this day and age but Gas and electricity were all separate enterprises run by local councils at one time. In Barlick's case they owned and ran the gas works but imported electricity from Keighley at first and later from Lancashire as well. I can go back eighty years and can't recall any problems with local supply.

[Stanley]

You might wonder what the connection is between these two images. It all goes back to something I was told years ago about the reason why there is this large gap between the Bridge and the end of Ribblesdale Terrace. I was told that the old fire engine seen above in the 1920 gala used to be kept in a large shed on this piece of ground. I have never seen a picture of it and can't find it on the maps. Here's the 1900 OS map.



I'd like to believe that I was getting good information because of the source but as I say I have never found any corroborating evidence.

[plaques]

Mystery solved. a picture supplied by Ken Ranson showing The Fire engine shed on the RIGHT. Another little gem, the cloggers shed is on the LEFT hence name given to stream Cloggers Beck

.

Ribblesdale Terrace.jpg

[Wendyf]

I never know why Ken Ranson doesn't get back on the site, he is always watching us.

[plaques]

I never know why Ken Ranson doesn't get back on the site, he is always watching us.

Wrong again Wendy. He's always watching ME.

[Wendyf]

Ah! Silly me, always wrong.

[PanBiker]

hence name given to stream Cloggers Beck

Sorry Ken but Cloggers beck is not the one running through town. That beck starts on Weets and is known as Springs beck in it's upper length, then merges with Gillians beck between Walmsgate and the Butts. It then becomes Butts beck until flowing into Stock beck.

Cloggers beck is correctly called Fools Syke and runs from its source on Weets via Brogden, parallel to Brogden and Greenberfield Lanes through to it's own confluence with Stock beck.

All the watershed in Barlick comes off Weets and ends in Stock beck and then into the Ribble.

[Stanley]

Except County Brook and its tributaries which ends up in the Aire Valley via Earby.
Well done Ken, that solves that mystery for me. Nice to know it was a true report.



Jim Marsh and the clogger's shop at Gisburn Road bridge. Jim is on the extreme left.

[plaques]

Sorry Ken but Cloggers beck is not the one running through town. That beck starts on Weets and is known as Springs beck in it's upper length, then merges with Gillians beck between Walmsgate and the Butts. It then becomes Butts beck until flowing into Stock beck.

I personally (Plaques) can't speak for this particular section of the stream but I remember when I lived in Burnley there is a stream called 'Sweet Water' which started its life way up into the hills but then ran through an old part of town picking up a good quantity of household drainage. For good reasons it lost its name of Sweet Water and became locally Bowker's Brook. Bowker being a very old farm and Borough refuse tip. Father down stream after much of the deposits settled out it reverted back to its original name. The term Cloggers Beck may be one of those very local changes??

[PanBiker]

Well all I can say is that as a Barlicker born and bred. Cloggers beck is the one north of Brogden Lane. Tickled some decent trout out of there as a lad. Never heard Butts beck called Cloggers. The fact that it had a Clog shop next to it is just coincidence. Just downstream from the bridge where the garages site is now was the feeder pond for the Cornmill. I have heard that stretch referred to as Cornmill beck but on the map it is shown as Stock beck.

[Tripps]

The name Ken Ranson seemed familiar so I googled. Found several Barlick related interesting links. One looked of interest, Barnoldswick but all the links were long dead.

Another took me in a virtuous circle to this site naive original papers where in the first essay the writer has a good old moan about the links on that site being dormant - and it was written in 2004.

I smiled and continued to read - it was like bumping unexpectedly into a group of old friends.

I think it qualifies as just a bit spooky. . . . .

[Stanley]

I see Google cut off part of the whinge David. Here's a treat for you.

STANLEY HAVING A GOOD OLD WHINGE!

Every now and again I get out my surfboard and go and have a look at Barnoldswick web sites online. Now I know I could be said to have a vested interest in Oneguy, after all it publishes all my stuff without question, but really, if you want a collection of boring and out of date sites, a Google search for ‘Barnoldswick’ is the place to be. I logged on to Pendle Net and this is what I found in the links.
The parish church site. Overlaid text on home page. Links that don’t work and a general paucity of information. All the hallmarks of a site posted and forgotten.
Barnoldswick United. If you want the best Tripod/Pop up experience ever, log on to this site. It is impossible to view because it throws up 7 pop ups on the home page. I assume it’s about football but lost the will to live….
Barnoldswick Barons. A tasteful but plaintive notice asking the owners of the site to contact the hosts. Looks like a dead un to me!
Barnoldswick Cricket Club. Page cannot be displayed.
Barnoldswick Online. Advertising lectures in the library in 2000 and shops that are long gone. No evidence of any maintenance at all.
Barnoldswick?. (no kidding, that’s the name). Page cannot be displayed.
Towards Earby and Barnoldswick. Interesting concept, a black page with three logos and nothing else. Tasteful but what’s the point?
Blues in Barnoldswick. Page cannot be ………
The Barlick Hotel. One page carrying a message that it ought to be up by weekend. Huh? What weekend and what is the Barnoldswick Hotel?
Bushido Ju Jitsu Barnoldswick. Ahhhh! A site that works, has internal links that work and is clear and simple. My problem is that there were no obvious dates that gave a clue as to whether it is current or not.
Ghyll Golf Club. Bog standard syndicated listing but it is at least clear and tells you how to get there.
Ken Ranson’s page. It’s clear and it works and has content. What more could you want? One little niggle, it doesn’t let you escape back to Google using the ‘back’ button. Sneaky is that Ken……
Lancashire Lynch’s. Page not available.
Noel Leak’s Nomar racing. A betting syndicate page. Alright if you are daft enough to back horses I suppose…..
Noel Leak’s Stitchin time. The site works, is a personal genealogy page and I can see work has gone into it. I lost the will to live when reading the home page CV.
Sam Pease’s page. Doesn’t exist.
Remember, this is just one site’s links. I decided I had better things to do after going through these. But just pause and think for a moment. What’s the point of having a resource like the Web if we don’t use it? Even worse if we leave it cluttered with the cyber equivalent of litter in the streets. Why wasn’t there an address on the page for Oneguy? I’m sure a link exists between Pendle net and Oneguy but it wasn’t immediately obvious.
So what’s my point? Simply this, email all your friends and ask them to log on to Oneguy and register. That way we get the numbers up and creep up the ratings which in turn makes us more visible. If you know anyone in a local organisation, get them to contact Doc and talk to him about proper exposure on a well maintained site. Have you noticed how on his site every contribution is dated? Anyone visiting can see that this site is alive and buzzing, it’s doing exactly what the Web was designed to do, enabling ordinary people to communicate. Go to it!

Love to all, Stanley.

[Stanley]

Laycock's buses in 1925.

LAYCOCK’S BUSES

On February 13th 1870 a great opportunity opened for the town, the Barnoldswick Railway opened for business and for the first time in the town’s history, long distance passenger transport became possible. Up till then, the only way to get out of the town was to walk or cadge a lift with someone who had business outside the town and owned a horse drawn conveyance. It became possible, not only to travel for business but pleasure also, relations in nearby towns could be visited and holiday times were transformed for those who could afford the fare.
Barlick was well served in that the station was in the centre of the town. Everyone lived within ten minutes walk. Some towns weren’t so lucky, you might have an hour of a walk simply to get to the train. In 1880 Cowling was in this position. It was three miles to the station at Crosshills and using the train meant a three mile walk there and back. Bad enough if you were setting off for a trip but even worse if you needed to use the train to get to work. In inclement weather it became even more of a problem. What was needed was local transport to the station.
A man called Ezra Laycock was the postman in Cowling in the 1880s and he realised that there was an opportunity here to add another string to his bow. He started an occasional service to the station with a horse and trap and prospered. By 1895 he had bought a horse-drawn wagonette and was running a regular service to Kildwick as well as providing carriages for weddings and funerals. He ran this service for ten years and it proved very popular. One regular passenger was a boy whose education at Keighley Grammar School was paid for by the people of Cowling. Ezra’s contribution was free transport to and from the station. His name was Philip Snowden, later to become ‘The Iron Chancellor’ in the first Labour government.
Legend has it that sometime in 1905 Ezra overheard some business men talking about a new innovation in London, the first motor buses ever seen in England running regular passenger carrying services. Later that year we find Ezra in partnership with a Mr W Stephenson of Skipton and ordering an 18 seater motor bus from the Milnes-Daimler Company of Hadley in Shropshire, and going to London to pick up the new vehicle from the body-builders. They drove it back and at Kildwick met one of Laycock’s wagonettes ready to start off for Cowling. The passengers were transferred to the bus and that day the first motor bus service arrived in Cowling.
I have to insert a note of caution here. Many years ago I was told that Laycock’s had the first motor bus in Yorkshire but since then I have found a reference to a similar vehicle being involved in an accident at Knaresborough in 1902. The only problem with this is that if it was a Milnes-Daimler, this seems doubtful as the company was formed in November 1902. Whatever the truth, nobody can deny that Ezra Laycock was one of the pioneers.
There were dire predictions about safety and reliability but the new motor bus was an instant success. By 1906 Laycock and Stephenson of Cowling were ordering a second vehicle from Milnes-Daimler, this time it was a double decker and could carry 49 passengers. The firm was doing well but Ezra wasn’t the only man with foresight in the area. In 1905 The Silsden Motor Bus Company started a service and shortly afterwards in 1906 a Mr C Chapman of Grassington replaced his horse-drawn mail coaches with motor vehicles. Neither of these firms survived the frenzy of competition in the 1920s. The Silsden firm was taken over by the West Yorkshire Road Car Company and Chapman’s buses went bankrupt.
What was happening in Barlick? When did we see our first bus? The opening of the Barlick branch line to Earby had opened up travel into Lancashire or Yorkshire and it would appear that there was no great pressure for another form of local transport. In addition, the railway companies were very quick to object to a bus service that competed with their traffic. The first mention I can find of buses running into Barlick is in the early 1920s when Premier Motors set up in Earby and ran an Earby-Barnoldswick-Skipton service. This firm was started by John Tempest, Jim Cowgill and J W Smith. Two of the drivers were John Griffin and John Smith from Earby. John Griffin, in his autobiography, says that he was paid £2-10-0 a week.
Premier soon had competition from Castle Motors based in Sackville Yard at Skipton who ran a Skipton to Barlick service as well. This was owned by Jim Wynn, John Rimmer and Bill Morris. The fare between Skipton and Barlick was 9d single and 1/5 return. (roughly 4p and 7p). John Griffin left Premier and went to work for Castle motors at £3 a week. He says that the Premier Terminus was the Conservative Club and Castle used the forecourt of the Seven Stars.
Meanwhile, Ezra Laycock had been expanding. In 1912 W Stephenson left the partnership and taking in his two sons, John and Rennie, the firm traded as Ezra Laycock and Sons of Cowling. In 1926 he ignored the General Strike and this resulted in him gaining a route into Keighley. On 25th July 1927 Laycocks started a new route between Colne and Cowling via Earby, Skipton and Kildwick. On 25th of March 1928 they bought out Premier of Earby and brought the Barnoldswick to Skipton route into the company. Laycock’s had arrived in the town.
The 1929/30 depression hit Laycocks hard and on 23rd of October 1933 the newly formed Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Board took the firm over. Ezra retired to Morecambe and it looked like the end of the firm. Barlick Council persuaded BCN to allow Laycocks back and two months after finishing Laycocks were in business again with the Barnoldswick to Skipton service trading as Ezra Laycock Limited and John and Rennie Laycock’s sons, Roy and Donald entered the firm. Rennie and Donald left the firm in 1952 and in August 1961 Laycock’s took over Silver Star Motor Services, Mr J T Hey’s company. This brought the Skipton to Carleton route in and some workers services.
1964 saw another expansion when Barlick Station closed. The firm bought its first double decker for forty years and eventually had three running on the Skipton Schools service. This was the last expansion. As well as the regular routes and school services, Laycock’s ran a service round Coates and works buses for Rolls Royce. In 1972 Ezra Laycock Limited was sold to Pennine Motors, Mr Simpson’s bus company in Gargrave and on the 11th of August the last green bus pulled into the West Close garage yard. 67 years of service to the travelling public was at an end.
I am indebted to two authors for most of this article, one is J B Griffin’s 1979 autobiography and the other is a small book written by Philip Lingard in 1975, ‘First Bus In Yorkshire’. Though they differ in some of the details, they have given me the confidence, together with information from local people, to write this account. There is one brilliant picture of a group of buses in about 1925. John Griffin was working for them at the time and gives the names of the drivers so I’ll leave you with the line-up. From left to right, John Laycock, Arthur Overend, Eric Chew, Billy Reader (the strongest man in the garage!) John Griffin and on the end, William Overend, son of Arthur.

SCG/10 February 2004
1,310 words